The Sound of Darkness

科学家们能够观察到140亿年前最后一次与物质相互作用的光，当时宇宙只有几十万年的历史。通过研究这种光，他们可以研究比现在简单得多的宇宙。由于这种简单性，对于给定的宇宙模型，这种光的特性可以精确地计算出来。对于已经成为宇宙标准模型的宇宙来说，预测和观测之间的一致性是相当不同寻常的。然而，这个标准模型预测，目前宇宙的膨胀速度比通过更直接的膨胀观测发现的要小得多。该项目是一项理论研究，目的是对宇宙的标准模型进行哪些调整，才能使预测的膨胀率与观测到的膨胀率保持一致，同时保持与所有其他数据的一致性。研究人员将培养研究生进行研究，并将开发一款棋盘游戏，旨在提高公众对宇宙学的理解，扩大对各种大型宇宙学项目的认识和欣赏，加深对学术科学作为人类事业的理解，并传达多元化团队的好处。该奖项将支持在特定目标时代对宇宙内容的研究：在重组之前的二十年尺度因子演化。研究人员将检验宇宙微波背景（CMB）数据与标准宇宙学模型Lambda冷暗物质（LCDM）的一致性，并采取“自下而上”的方法来研究可能的扩展。他们将研究什么是被允许的，甚至是受欢迎的，以及为什么，包括和不包括距离阶梯和重子声学振荡数据。这项研究对于它的发现前景、它排除特定延伸的能力以及它对宇宙参数确定的影响都是重要的。除了暗物质和暗能量之外，它还可能指向一种新的“黑暗”成分，宇宙学家已经需要暗物质和暗能量来理解宇宙的观测。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Scientists are able to observe light that last interacted with matter about 14 billion years ago when the universe was just a few hundred thousand years old. By studying this light, they can study the universe when it was much simpler than it is now. Due to that simplicity, for a given model of the cosmos, the properties of this light can be accurately calculated. For what has become the standard model of the cosmos the agreement between predictions and observations is quite extraordinary. However, this standard model predicts that the current rate of expansion of the cosmos is significantly smaller than what is found by much more direct observation of the expansion. This project is a theoretical investigation of what adjustments to the standard model of the cosmos might be required to bring the predicted expansion rate in line with the observed expansion rate, while maintaining consistency with all other data. The researchers will train graduate students in research, and will develop a board game aimed at improving public understanding of cosmology, expanding awareness and appreciation of various large-scale cosmology projects, deepening understanding of academic science as a human enterprise, and communicating the benefits of a diverse team. This award will support an investigation of the contents of the universe in a particular target epoch: the two decades of scale factor evolution prior to recombination. The researchers will examine consistency of cosmic microwave background (CMB) data with the standard cosmological model, Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM), and take a "bottom-up" approach to studying possible extensions. They will examine what is allowed, or even favored, and why, with and without the inclusion of distance ladder and baryon acoustic oscillation data. This investigation is important for its discovery prospects, its ability to rule out particular extensions, and its impact on cosmological parameter determination. It might also point toward a new "dark" ingredient in addition to the dark matter and dark energy that cosmologists already need to make sense of observations of the cosmos.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.